The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), has learnt that Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas has shut down within the PA Al-Jazeera, a major media that is not under his control, for “incitement” against him and the PA. That being the case, why has not Abbas closed down PA media, which he completely controls, for incitement against Jews and Israel, as required by required under the signed Oslo agreements and the 2003 Roadmap peace plan?

Al-Jazeera, the most popular network of choice among Palestinians, was shut down on Abbas’ orders for committing “incitement” after it aired comments on July 14 by senior Fatah member and PLO foreign minister Farouk Kaddoumi who accused Abbas personally of involvement in an alleged plot to kill Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian Information Ministry said in a statement, “Al-Jazeera has always dedicated a wide portion of its broadcasts to incitement against the

Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority” and PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said yesterday that he commissioned PA Attorney General Ahmed Al-Mughni to take the legal procedures necessary to prosecute Al-Jazeera (‘PA shuts down Al-Jazeera’s West Bank offices,’ Maan News Agency, July 15, 2009).

PA media regularly glorifies terrorists and terrorism against Israel and commits incitement to hatred and murder against Jews and Israel:

·        Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister of Prisoners, Ashraf al-Ajrami praised PA forces on PA TV for terrorism against Israelis: “Now they [Hamas] are speaking [disparagingly] about the PA’s security forces, calling them] ‘Dayton Forces.’ These [security] forces paid the heavy price in the second Intifada, both as Shahids [Martyrs] and as prisoners. The greatest number of prisoners is from the security forces sector. They are the ones who bore arms and carried out the greatest and most important operations [terror attacks] against the Israeli occupation – and especially against soldiers, and some of the most famous operations [terror attacks] in the West Bank – Ein-Arik, Wadi Al-Haramiyeh, Sorda, and others. These were carried out by the heroes of the Palestinian security forces, who protected the homeland and the national interest, while Hamas merely looked on for many months before embarking [on terrorist attacks].” (Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, ‘PA boasts of past terror attacks by security forces,’ Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) Bulletin, July 7, 2009).

·        PA TV broadcast an event in which Fatah bragged of committing more terrorist acts against Israelis than Hamas. The broadcast included a mock debate between Fatah and Hamas partisans in which the savage October 2000 murder and mutilation of two Israeli reservists by a frenzied mob of Palestinians was celebrated and lauded as an example of national pride and duty. (The two Israelis – Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami – had unintentionally entered PA-controlled Ramallah and were arrested by PA police before a murderous mob seized them, brutally murdered them, threw them from the second floor police station window to a savage throng below that proceeded to tear their bodies apart and mutilate them beyond recognition. While the picture of a Palestinian celebrating the killing by waving his bloody hands to the mob horrified the world, the murder remains a source of pride for Fatah) (Maayana Miskin, ‘Abbas’s Fatah Brags About Anti-Israel Terror,’ Israel National News, June 26, 2009).

·        PA newspaper falsely accuses Israel of medical experimentation on Palestinians: “The method employed by the Israeli Occupation in which they [are] instigating slow death … doctors in Israeli prison clinics use the prisoners as guinea pigs for clinical drug testing under the pretense of ‘treatment.’” (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 6, 2008).

·        “Many of the male and female inmates received injections from needles they had not seen before, and which caused their hair and facial hair to fall out permanently … others lost their sanity, or their mental condition is constantly deteriorating… and some are suffering from infertility” (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 4, 2008).

·        “The doctors in these prison clinics are using the prisoners as guinea pigs for clinical testing of drugs and treatment-methods.” (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 3, 2008), translations courtesy of ‘Palestinian Authority Libel: Prisoners are used for Nazi-like medical experiments,’ Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), July 9, 2008).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “It would be hilarious were it not so serious that the PA, when it finds allegations against it aired in the Arabic media to be ‘incitement,’ it is able to act immediately to shut down the media. This is now clearly the case, even when the media outlet in question is Al Jazeera, the most popular cable network in the PA and throughout much of the Arab and Muslim worlds.

“Conversely, when the PA-controlled media broadcast toxic and vile anti-Jewish and pro-terror propaganda, the PA, which is committed under several agreements to outlaw such media, does nothing and permits it to continue in sowing poisonous seeds of hatred throughout Palestinian society.

“For years, apologists for Abbas, the PA and the Palestinians generally have often used the argument that the PA is too weak to enforce its own commitments to end incitement or risk a confrontation with Palestinian society over the issue. Yet, however, weak the PA may be, it is evidently well up to the task of shuttering media outlets that merely air allegations against the PA. Yet, when it comes to its own controlled media, we are apparently expected to believe that it lacks the power to control what is broadcast.

“The absurd and provably false apologia and indulgence for continuing Palestinian incitement to hatred and murder against Israel and Jews must end, both because it is a poisonous phenomenon in itself which fuels terrorism and conflict and because it is a basic PA obligation under signed agreements. Until this occurs, there should be no negotiations or even talk of rewards or concessions to the PA.”